BIEDS HIEDNDINIDAE COTTLE SEEEIPENNIS. 



313 



COTYLE RIPARIA, oie. 



Bank Swallow. 



Hirundo riparia, Linnaeps, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 344. — Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 46 ; pi. x.xxviii. — Audubon, Orn Biog, 



IV, 1838, 584 ; pi. 385.— Ib. Syn. 1839.— Is. Birds Am. I, 1840, 187 ; pi. 50. 

 Cotyle riparia, Boie, Isis, 1822, 550.— Bon. List, 1838.— Cassin, Illust. 1, 1855, 247.— Brewer, N. Am. Ool. 1, 1857, 



105 ; pi. iv. fig. 49, (egg.) 

 " Hirundo cinerea, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. XIV, 1817, 526." 



Sp. Ch. — Smallest of American swallows. Tail slightly emarginate. Outer web of first primary soft, without hooks. Lowei 

 part of the tarsus with a few scattered feathers. Above grayish brown, somewhat fuliginous, with a tendency to paler margins 

 to the feathers. Beneath pure white, with a band across the breast and sides of the body like (^ho back. Length, 4.75 ; wing, 

 4.00; tail, 2.00. 



A specimen collected by Dr. Heermann in the Sacramento valley is rather smaller than Penn- 

 sylvania ones, and the brown band across the throat is broader and more continuous. Skins 

 from the Upper Missouri are rather larger than from either side of the continent^ and the colors 

 purer and more continuous ; the tail aad wing feathers without the white edging. 



The young of the year are not conspicuously different from the adults, save in the greater 

 amount of light edging to the feathers on the back. The tail is less emarginate. 



This species is supposed by most authors to be identical with the European bank swallow^ 

 careful comparisons having hitherto failed to exhibit any tangible difference. It furnishes 

 almost a solitary instance, among land birds, of the same species inhabiting both continents 

 permanently, and not as an accidental or occasional visitor on either. 



List of specimens. 



COTYLE SERRIPENNIS, B o n a p . 



Rongh-winged Swallow. 



Hirundo serripennis, Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 593. — . Birds America, I, 1840, 193 ; pi. 51. 

 Cotyle serripennis, Bonap. Consp. 1850, 342. — Cassin, Illust. I, 1855,247. — Brewer, N. Am. Oology, I, 1857, 

 106 ; pi. iv, fig. 50, (egg.) 



Sp. Ch. — Tail slightly emarginate ; first primary with the peimulae of the outer web much stiSened, with their free e.xtremities 

 recurved into a hook very appreciable to the touch. No feathers on the tarsus and toes. Above rather light sooty brown, 

 beneath whitish gray, or light brownish ash, becoming nearly pure wliite in the middle of the belly and on the under tail 

 coverts. Length, 4.50 ; wing, 4.28 ; tail, 2.23. 



Hob. — United States from Atlantic to Pacific. 



Specimens vary in having the belly of a purer white, and in the greater or less intensity of 

 the ashy brown of the tliroat and breast. 

 40 b 



